Loaded my work bag into the car, then realized I forgot my lunch, so told them to get the kids to school and come back for me.
Now I'm waiting, and my work is traveling.
And thus, a free time for a poem.
I've known many a writer who've asked when they should quit. When do they need to accept they'll never make it, and leave the folly behind. I've also known a few who swear it off due to emotional angst only to return months later.
We all stop from time to time. Even the prolific-4-hours-a-day Stephen King spent a semester binging soap operas to avoid work on his novel once (no, I'm not making this up.)
So I'm thinking of all the writers this morning who are thinking of putting the proverbial pen away for good.
Don't.
There's more there than publication.
Belated NaPoWriMo 10:
"To the Writer Thinking of Quitting"
How many worlds
have bled out
from your words?
How many births
have you labored
onto the page?
Where do you keep
the scalpels and hatchets
wielded with careful hands?
Show me the shards
of all the hearts
broken by your will.
The many tears
these one real
which dry like invisible ink
scaring your cheeks?
Show me the unions
sewn together
letter by painstaking letter.
You leave a trail
of destruction and hope
faith and distrust
littered with keys
that promise escape.
Never forget.
Creation is hard wired
soaking backwards
out of you
invading souls.
You have many endings
yet to write
but your own
is not one of them.
Now I'm waiting, and my work is traveling.
And thus, a free time for a poem.
I've known many a writer who've asked when they should quit. When do they need to accept they'll never make it, and leave the folly behind. I've also known a few who swear it off due to emotional angst only to return months later.
We all stop from time to time. Even the prolific-4-hours-a-day Stephen King spent a semester binging soap operas to avoid work on his novel once (no, I'm not making this up.)
So I'm thinking of all the writers this morning who are thinking of putting the proverbial pen away for good.
Don't.
There's more there than publication.
Belated NaPoWriMo 10:
"To the Writer Thinking of Quitting"
How many worlds
have bled out
from your words?
How many births
have you labored
onto the page?
Where do you keep
the scalpels and hatchets
wielded with careful hands?
Show me the shards
of all the hearts
broken by your will.
The many tears
these one real
which dry like invisible ink
scaring your cheeks?
Show me the unions
sewn together
letter by painstaking letter.
You leave a trail
of destruction and hope
faith and distrust
littered with keys
that promise escape.
Never forget.
Creation is hard wired
soaking backwards
out of you
invading souls.
You have many endings
yet to write
but your own
is not one of them.
Comments
Post a Comment